Archive for the ‘Winnipeg Free Press’ Category

February 28, 2011 LETTER SENT TO ALL ONTARIO CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENT LOCALS

Boozhoo Ontario CFS Locals,

I was fortunate enough to speak to at the Spirit of the North conference to the Northern Ontario universities. We discussed plans for World Water Day (March 22/11) and Canada Water Week (March 14-22/11). There was support for holding ‘Glass Action’ days on campuses.

- show a feature length film, inviting the greater community to attend (i.e. Waterlife, Water on the Table)

- encourage people to bring empty glasses for water… if you have it in your budgets, you could mail in glasses for your students, or ask your MP drop them off to the Prime Minister… you could also have empty glasses on hand for people… start a water glass drive now… insert the postcards into each glass, so people can just quickly fill it out, then drop it into a box for shipping. EG4W CFS letters to PM (4 per page) PDF

- invite the Chief or an Elder from a neighbouring community to speak at your event, find out what their water situation is… perhaps you will be doing a water ceremony that day, ‘Greet Pray Semaa’, please send us this information so we can place a virtual semaa/tobacco leaf on our website (ceremony tracker: http://www.emptyglassforwater.ca/nyk/?page_id=145)

- promote the Mother Earth ‘Turtle Island’ Water Walk at your event. (www.motherearthwaterwalk.com) This year the Grandmothers and youth are walking and carrying water from all 3 oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico, and meeting in Bad River, Wisconsin where the waters will converge on JUNE 12th. I am helping coordinate this event. Water Walk 2011 Brochure PDF

Minimum standards not being met: MKO

OTTAWA — First Nations leaders from northern Manitoba are taking their water crisis to the United Nations.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper told a Senate committee hearing Tuesday the lack of running water in more than 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.

MKO plans to ask the UN to investigate the violations of rights imposed by the lack of water.

“How many more people in northern Manitoba First Nations must get sick with the flu or other diseases just because they can’t wash their hands before the government of Canada will take action?” Harper asked the senators at the committee.

Last fall, the Winnipeg Free Press exposed the Third World conditions in the Island Lake region of Manitoba, where most families have less water every day than people in refugee camps.

The United Nations recommends 50 litres of clean water are needed per person every day to meet minimum standards. In disaster zones, the UN recommends at least 15 litres of clean water per person per day.

Many people in the Island Lake region get by on 10 litres per day, usually lugged by family members in pails from local water pipes. Additional water comes in untreated from lakes and rivers that have tested positive for contaminants including E. coli.

The issue has been front and centre as the aboriginal peoples committee of the Senate considers bill S-11. The legislation seeks to regulate water quality on reserves.

Chiefs nationwide have said the bill puts the regulation cart before the water truck.

Few communities have the infrastructure needed to meet any regulations on water standards and chiefs, including Harper, say the government needs to help build the systems before they can be regulated.

“Bill S-11 will not deliver clean running water into 1,000 homes in northern Manitoba,” said Harper.

Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who introduced the bill in the senate for the government, said the bill is intended as a starting place.

“Would you agree, at least, it’s a step forward?” he asked.

Harper said only if the bill also included a requirement for the government to ensure the systems were in place to meet regulations.

Several Liberal senators have indicated plans to vote against the legislation, though the Conservatives likely have enough votes on their side to pass it on to the House of Commons.

Liberal Sen. Roméo Dallaire said he finds it disturbing most Canadians don’t even have to think about clean running water at their summer homes, let alone their primary residences.

“Cottage country in Canada has much better drinking water than you,” Dallaire said.

Harper is pushing for the federal government and Manitoba to join forces to build the water-treatment plants, water holding tanks and indoor plumbing fixtures needed to ensure the Island Lake residents have enough clean water to drink, cook and bathe.

Water is considered a basic human right according to many international treaties, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

But in CANADA, running water is not available to INDIGENOUS PEOPLE living in Manitoba. The Island Lake area of four reserves has a population of 10,000 and half of its homes DO NOT HAVE RUNNING WATER.

The Indigenous people of the Island Lake region have less clean water than people living in refugee camps overseas.

This isn’t happening in the third world, it’s happening in one of the WORLD’S RICHEST COUNTRIES.

Indigenous people in Canada live in third world conditions and MOST CANADIANS are NOT even AWARE of it.

If you CARE ABOUT PEOPLE in this country, if you are ASHAMED OF OUR GOVERNMENT and the way it treats Indigenous people, then take a stand.

Why should CANADA’S INDIGENOUS people be treated like THIRD WORLD CITIZENS?

Join us in the “WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT” campaign to make Canada adhere to the same standards the United Nations says are rights FOR ALL.

We have prepaid postcards to the Prime Minister of Canada using the image above. They are available at AMC, 2nd floor, 275 Portage Ave., Winnipeg. You can also sign the online petition on the right or join our facebook group, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

For More Information:Winnipeg Free Press:NoRunningWater

Is an investigative series of the lack of running water on First Nations Communities in the Island Lake region of Manitoba, for full story and details please visit: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/no-running-water/United nation general assembly declares access to clean water and sanitation is a human right:
28 July 2010 – Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared today, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.

United Nations News Centre
1 October 2010 – The main United Nations body dealing with human rights has affirmed that the right to water and sanitation is contained in existing human rights treaties, and that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full realization of this and all other basic human rights.
While the General Assembly declared in July that safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, this is the first time that the Human Rights Council has declared itself on the issue….Right to water and sanitation is legally binding, affirms key UN body

Speeding up construction of a $1.4-billion all-weather road from Norway House to Island Lake is the best way to ensure thousands of First Nations residents get running water, their chiefs said Monday.

The chiefs from Wasagamack, St. Theresa Point, Garden Hill and Red Sucker Lake flew to Winnipeg for a news conference at the Island Lake Tribal Council office, where they joined Manitoba Grand Chief Ron Evans in calling on the federal government to help pay for the road. All plumbing and construction supplies now have to be brought in via an ice road that was open for less than four weeks this year.

“We need to expedite the road that goes into that region,” Evans said, referring to the east-west route announced last week by the East Side Road Authority. A previous proposal for a road all the way up the east side of Lake Winnipeg was rejected because it would have been 168 kilometres longer.

“The province tells us that it would take 30 years… to build a road into that region if there’s no federal support,” the grand chief said.

He estimates that with federal help, the road could be built in less than 10 years. So far, the provincial government has committed $93 million — with more expected in today’s throne speech — and the federal government has committed nothing.

Ten more years is a long time for families to wait when they’re getting sick from overflowing outhouses and hauling water buckets from outdoor taps, so St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall has started work on an emergency plan to protect the health of his people until multimillion-dollar piping can be installed.

He estimates that 364 outhouses need to be built on concrete pads in his community alone, and 314 water containers installed that hold at least the 350 litres per family per day needed to meet United Nations minimum health standards. Trucks would need to be bought and drivers hired to suck out sewage from the outhouses and deliver clean water.

McDougall said some homes likely don’t have driveways usable by delivery trucks, so road access work would also be required.

None of that can be done within existing budgets, the chief said. He said First Nations are criticized for running deficits when they try to meet local needs with an inadequate budget, when Indian Affairs should instead be accused of running a humanitarian deficit.

That department directed questions by the Free Press to Infrastructure Canada. In an email, Infrastructure Canada said it has not received a formal request from the Manitoba government for funding for new all-weather roads for the Island Lake region. “While most Infrastructure Canada funding has already been committed under existing sources of funds, if a proposal is received, it will be examined in the context of available funding.”

NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents northern Manitoba, said she has raised the issue of roads to northeastern Manitoba numerous times in the House of Commons. She wondered why the federal government doesn’t make a long-term commitment to an all-weather road instead of spending money every year on ice-road maintenance, flying in emergency supplies and medevacs. The road would also open up possibilities for economic development like mines and tourism. “The fact that we’re able to send somebody to the moon 50 years ago just speaks to the imbalance when it comes to First Nations and not being able to build a road.”

McDougall said it costs about $25,000 to connect each home to existing water lines from his community’s treatment plant. He got plumbing only after his home burned down, making him eligible for a newer house. Garden Hill Chief Dino Flett is lucky enough to live on the side of town that got funding a few years ago for water hookup.

McDougall said he grew up in a family that managed to keep clean without running water by assigning all 11 kids chores. He said the unhealthy grime in some Island Lake homes is partly due to the “malaise” that sets in when people feel hopeless after generations of disruption by residential schools, adoption by outsiders and failed urban relocation programs.

As a former school principal, he believes in the power of education. “I’ve been trying to encourage people to look after a certain plot of land.”

Leader threatens to take road, water issues global

If the federal government does not take rapid action on an all-season road and emergency water and sewer solutions, Island Lake leaders will be forced to call on the international community, said St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall, who chairs the Island Lake Tribal Council.

He said he would consider calling in humanitarian organizations that serve Africa and the Middle East.

The Winnipeg-based Mennonite Central Committee is already discussing whether it can help, following a series of Free Press stories highlighting the desperate living conditions in the Island Lake region.

Executive director Peter Rempel said the charity, which usually focuses its efforts overseas, is trying to arrange a meeting with Northern Manitoba Grand Chief David Harper. MCC wants his advice and the advice of local leaders and churches on “practical immediate solutions we could offer to alleviate the situation somewhat.” Macdonald Youth Services has already donated to the Island Lake Tribal Council some plastic water containers with spigots and cash to purchase rain barrels.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs will consider setting up a charitable foundation if it doesn’t get a quick response from St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover, who is parliamentary secretary for Indian Affairs, Grand Chief Ron Evans said.

The chiefs will distribute postcards showing an Island Lake child suffering from a water-related skin condition that they hope Manitobans will send to their MPs.

Helen Fallding: “Encourage your church or favourite charity to consider raising money for emergency supplies to help northern communities reduce health risks while they wait for government funding of expensive new water infrastructure. Free soap, towels, rainwater tanks and water containers with spigots would be a godsend in Island Lake communities where people are so poor soap has been stolen from school washrooms and water buckets from the delivery program for elders. Perhaps Porta-Potties could be set up for those without decent outhouses.”

Note to readers: If you find a charity willing to help improve water and sanitation on First Nations, email helen.fallding@freepress.mb.ca so we can write a story alerting other readers who want to help.